Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A man played a steel drum at the Times Square subway stop, Tuesday night. It made for a lot of clanging. Meanwhile, trains were pulling up and the announcers were making their announcements.

As usual, there were tons of people about. If you live long enough in New York, you know exactly where along the platform to stand, so you're next to the exit at your destination.

--

It's been crazy busy for me at work. You wouldn't think it with the economy, but people are purchasing apartments and renovating them.

I am working on a fancy kitchen in a townhouse, two condo apartments being merged into one giant apartment, a tiny baby's room, and a duplex on Fifth Avenue. And I am helping a coworker with her project on Park Avenue. And a neighbor just asked me to help her with her plans to open a day care (!!!).

I'm usually at work until late but I had a meeting on Tuesday. Rush hour is something you want to avoid in the city. Just getting into a subway car can be a hassle.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Parts of the city seem quaint, with twisty streets and smaller buildings. But then other parts resemble a highway.

Above, you'll see everyone on the streets, from motorcycles to skateboarders to cyclists to pedicabs.

--

Last night, after a long day at work, I stepped onto the elevator at my office building.

The elevator started moving down. Then lurched a little. Then faltered and came to a stop. All the buttons on the wall started flashing in unison, as if possessed.

I was stuck.

Thankfully, I didn't have to pee in my shoe or eat my purse. After many minutes and lurches and flashings of buttons, the elevator finally crept back up to where it'd started and let me out. Phew.

I'm glad nothing serious happened. I told my fiance Mark about the incident later, and he told me he'd been stuck in an elevator twice before.

Once, for a few minutes. Then again for a half hour. He had to be rescued by firefighters, pulled out of the elevator as it was stuck between floors. It must be a somewhat common thing to happen, then.

Friday, January 11, 2013

I would say this is a typical 'non-rush hour' view, meaning that you can see spaces to either side of people. People wearing their wintry gear and ear buds. People of all different ethnicities and ages.

People, people, people.

As usual, there is scaffolding in the background. Rush hour crowds are easily 3x more crowded than the photo above.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

I've seen this truck a couple times before. Sitting on top of it is a sculpture by Sergio Furnare, a New York artist, depicting a well known photograph of iron workers on their lunch break.

The original black and white photo was taken in 1932 of ironworkers working at Rockefeller Center. They were sitting on the 69th floor and you could see the city below them. The truck is Furnare's traveling billboard.

We had a gorgeous day in the city, Saturday. It felt like Spring, on the cool side with sunshine.

In the background left is a sculpture by the minimalist artist Forrest Myers. It's comprised of a grid of beams cantilevering out from a building.

For the original 1932 photo of the iron workers, click here.
For the artist's website, click here.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Canal Street is a street busy with car and pedestrian traffic. The on ramp to the Manhattan Bridge is on the eastern end of this street, and the sidewalks are lined with vendors selling perfume, jewelry and clothing.

--

By chance, my fiance Mark and I tuned in to a new show of the 'Funny or Die' series, called 'Billy on the Street'.

This guy named Billy Eichner runs around Manhattan, quizzing people on the street for small prizes.

I mean, he literally runs around on the street. And there is nothing more frightening in New York than a big guy running at you (waving a microphone, yelling random questions about celebrities), so a good part of the show involves strangers running away from Billy in sheer terror. Ha.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

On the commute home, folks slept or sat or stood quietly. The party was decidedly over. Boo.

--

By the way, you would never know it was just New Year's Eve or that the 'ball dropped' or anything like that. It was business as grumpily usual, yesterday.

The official Times Square website says that more than one ton of confetti gets dropped during the celebration. And that there are no portable public restrooms outside (!).

I've never stood outside on New Year's to wait for the ball to drop and most likely never will. But if I were to stand outside for hours and hours in the cold, I'm not sure I could do it without knowing there was a bathroom readily available.

Just the thought of not having a toilet nearby would make me want to pee!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

I met this little french bulldog in Prospect Park, the other day. She was dressed for the holiday season, and looked as if she were reflecting on holidays past. There was a very thin dusting of snow on the ground.

Mark and I spent most of the week in Brooklyn, far away from the crowds that have swarmed into Manhattan. We had a very relaxing time off work.

It's suddenly very cold, here, which shouldn't be much of a surprise since it is January. We had virtually no snow in 2012, just the very light dusting here and there.

About Me

Welcome to my photo blog. I'm an architect and I live in Brooklyn. I post about New York life, my fiance Mark, his car Clive and our dog.
I take photos daily on a Canon 40D and Leica dLux-5.
Email me if you would like to purchase a print or if you just want to chat. I love to hear from people:
kittylittered @ gmail.com